The state of this game vs 15 years ago

[tehboomer]

For the record, if this seems like a rant, it is not. It's my honest opinion on what I've seen from the differences that I personally dislike between when I played this game in high school, and now. If you disagree, please tell me why.

As a returning player, this game is doing nothing more than to frustrate and turn me away nowadays. I've been back since the beginning of this age, and I have seen some stupid situations.

It is FAR too easy for the aggressor to do pretty much whatever they want. Even breaking T/Ms who are bigger than the rest of the KD is a feasible situation. Military losses when attacking or defending are far too high (even with hosp) and raze hits in war are flat out ridiculous.

I'm sure there are strategies when it comes to winning wars, but each individual province matters very little. The setup doesn't even need to be min/maxed. It's a crapshoot. All this game really comes down to now, is activity, a good leader who knows game strategy, and people who listen.

How did the game fall like this? It used to be so fun. Individual skill made a difference, quadra tapping was a rarity, and maintaining your prov's happiness/dpa/opa/sciences was something that actually took skill. And frankly, it made the game fun. Now? I'm not so sure...it's probably far more community reliant. If you like the people in your KD, you're more likely to stay for a time.

[Goodwitch]

it has changed some but I wouldn't say it doesn't take any skill to run a province, nor would i think that individual provinces don't matter. You do need a good leader, but even a good leader cannot control 25 provinces 100% of the time(without cheating). It is also very rare that one person leads alone because it is just too much work.
The biggest change is that we have far less players so the top, middle and bottom get muddled while in the past they played within their tier and it rarely went to blows.

[StratOcastle]

Depends on how you play. For the skill deficits I handicap myself with certain challenge dictums including chivalry. For instance, I'm currently at war and the enemy provinces are superior in honor, science and pure combative strength.

I achieve my handicap by starting the age with a decidedly inferior strat; Dwarf cleric this age. I never random or steal unless ordered to, outside of war. I retal the most powerful enemies that random me and usually give a pass to underpowered provinces from smaller kingdoms. Without randoming my honor and science are heavily dependent on performance in war. When a top kingdom randoms I always retal for the challenge aspect. I never explore to excess and only to minimum requirements. My province is almost always randomed with my army home which gives the aggressor an additional edge.

I also shun bots, chats, and targeting tools. We have a bot in kingdom which I don't use. We have a chat I don't use. I do use ambush calcs for simplicity.

This generally leaves me to occupying less organized kingdoms or kingdoms enjoying an age off. By sloughing off bottom feeding and only engaging formidable aggressors I find myself pressed to perform at levels that would otherwise be easily achieved.

I find playing at full strength underwhelming and detest optimized kingdom strats so I simply avoid them for the most part. I do volunteer my services as a temporary substitute to powerful kingdoms in need. This allows me to keep a finger on the pulse of current meta so my skills don't deteriorate. I provide invites to compensate my coming and going.

[beans]

pretty sure individual skill matters as much now as it always has. unfortunantly in kds with varied skill levels it is often the most skilled players that get taken down the hardest. enemy takes intel and figures out who the biggest threat is, then throws everything they can at taking them down. ****ty provs can be safely ignored until later.

keep playing, find a good team, have fun.

[Sephi]

what you most likely notice, is the decreased player base, making hits more focussed across kds, since even the mediocre kds are fairly active compared to the mediocre standard from 15 years ago.

[beans]

what you most likely notice, is the decreased player base, making hits more focussed across kds, since even the mediocre kds are fairly active compared to the mediocre standard from 15 years ago.

thats true. This is also why activity is so important. Now that there is a smaller and (on average) more skillful playerbase activity is more important.

[skeezer]

I agree with that. 15 years ago, you could start the game without a clue of how the game works, be allowed the time to figure it out, and have fun during the process.
With the smaller player base, you dont have near as much room to learn or grow without getting smacked down, be it from external attacks or even more likely, your own kd who refuses to nurture new players.
However it sounds like you are not a new player, and have a decent understanding of the game. And from that perspective, I think the game is similar to how it was 15 years ago. There are of course rules and regulations that govern the game which are different. These existed then as well, albeit different formulas. People warred then. People war now. Sure the game has changed in the ways you have to play the game to succeed, as an individual as well as a team.
But ask yourself, would you be pleased if that were not the case? Would you really feel inclined to come back and stay with the game if it were exactly as it were 15 years ago? Would there be players who would stay around that long if there were no change? In my humble opinion, change is the only thing keeping this game alive. It is very welcome. Adapting to changing circumstances is the most intriguing part of utopia.

[umajon911]

For the record, if this seems like a rant, it is not. It's my honest opinion on what I've seen from the differences that I personally dislike between when I played this game in high school, and now. If you disagree, please tell me why.

As a returning player, this game is doing nothing more than to frustrate and turn me away nowadays. I've been back since the beginning of this age, and I have seen some stupid situations.

It is FAR too easy for the aggressor to do pretty much whatever they want. Even breaking T/Ms who are bigger than the rest of the KD is a feasible situation. Military losses when attacking or defending are far too high (even with hosp) and raze hits in war are flat out ridiculous.

I'm sure there are strategies when it comes to winning wars, but each individual province matters very little. The setup doesn't even need to be min/maxed. It's a crapshoot. All this game really comes down to now, is activity, a good leader who knows game strategy, and people who listen.

How did the game fall like this? It used to be so fun. Individual skill made a difference, quadra tapping was a rarity, and maintaining your prov's happiness/dpa/opa/sciences was something that actually took skill. And frankly, it made the game fun. Now? I'm not so sure...it's probably far more community reliant. If you like the people in your KD, you're more likely to stay for a time.

Boomer, I keep seeing more and more of these posts lately. I started playing 10-15 years ago also, only my memory is absolutely horrible so I dont remember alot from back then. Hell, I don't even remember what pair of underwear I wore yesterday, if I wore any at all. Unfortunately though change happens throughout life, as I am sure everyone can agree. We have to adapt and overcome it though...

Changes happen every age, and IMO this age left alot of unknowns when it first started. Would being a heretic really work out? The new troops specs? Were they too high? Anon hitting?? But we all adapted to the changes, some didn't adapt so good, some made the best of them and found the perfect strat kd and prov wise and benefited from them.

[Skank]

@tehbooner : It is FAR too easy for the aggressor to do pretty much whatever they want. Even breaking T/Ms who are bigger than the rest of the KD is a feasible situation. Military losses when attacking or defending are far too high (even with hosp) and raze hits in war are flat out ridiculous.

Raze hits in war only destroy buildings? What is wrong with no unbreakable Mages or Rogues. This age T/M must rebuild just like an attacker. I like that. Embrace the changes and don't look back.

[Korp]

OP should do what the rest of us did who didnt leave the game for 15 years. Adapt to the new situation instead of complaining about how things didnt used to be like this and like that. imo.